Republican presidential candidates are spending their final hours before Tuesday evening's vote pressing the flesh and making one last appeal to Iowa's caucus-goers, who they are counting on to upend the pundits and polling data and offer big surprises on election night.

For Rick Santorum, whose late surge is the timeliest in the twisting and turning race, perseverance is paying off after nearly a year of glad-handing.

"I don't know what the result is going to be, but it's going to be a surprise and a pleasant one for us," Santorum told Fox News on Tuesday, counting on his supporters to go into the 1,700 caucus sites to make a case that he is a viable candidate to go head-to-head with President Obama.

Santorum said he has the essential ingredients headed into the evening's endeavor.

"Caucuses are about enthusiasm and momentum, and we certainly have enthusiasm and momentum," he said.

But Michele Bachmann, an Iowa native and the candidate casting herself as the only real c

Newt Gingrich brushed off his slide in the polls Thursday, ascribing the shift to the negative ads against him and claiming his campaign still has the juice to attract a "tremendous response" in Iowa.

The former House speaker, in an interview with Fox News, vowed to stay positive despite falling off the wagon several times in recent days. He appealed to Iowans to make a statement against negative campaigning by supporting his "big solutions" candidacy next Tuesday.

"Anybody who has eight or nine million dollars of negative advertising, much of it false, thrown at them is going to slide for awhile," Gingrich said. "I'm frankly barnstorming Iowa making the case that they shouldn't vote for people that have been running the negative ads. This is a chance for Iowans to say to the country we are sick of consultant-driven negative politics. The stakes are too big."

The pro-abortion political group Emily’s List has released a new ranking of the Republican presidential candidates and it labels former Speaker Newt Gingrich as the worst of the GOP hopefuls seeking to defeat pro-abortion President Barack Obama.

Emily’s List is releasing a scorecard on all of the candidates and sees Gingrich as the worst if only because he has refined his pro-life position and recently moved to supporting a position that life begins at conception or fertilization as opposed to saying it begins at implantation.

Gingrich’s voting record on pro-life issues reflected the consensus pro-life views of the majority of Americans.

Newt Gingrich and Michele Bachmann sparred on the issue of abortion in Thursday night’s Republican debate with Bachmann making an accusation that Gingrich did not fully support pro-life efforts in Congress.

“All right. Congresswoman Bachmann, you say that Speaker Gingrich has a, quote, “inconsistent record on life” and you singled out comments he made recently that life begins with the implantation of a fertilized egg, not at conception. What is your concern?” a Fox News panelist asked her.

Bachmann responded, “Well, my concern is the fact that the Republican Party can’t get the issue of life wrong. This is a basic part of our party. Just last night we gathered in Des Moines to talk about this issue, because it’s that crucial to our party. And one of the concerns that I had is that when Speaker Gingrich was Speaker of the House he had an opportunity to de-fund Planned Parenthood. And he chose not to take it.

Donald Trump’s stature within Republican ranks appears to be waning, after most of the party’s presidential hopefuls have shot down the billionaire developer’s invitation to take part in a “debate” moderated by “The Donald.”

Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Rep. Michele Bachmann, of Minnesota, became the latest to announce they will take a pass on the Dec. 27 Newsmax-sponsored debate, following in the footsteps of Texas Rep. Ron Paul, of Texas, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, meanwhile, have said they plan to attend the event.

The announcements from the Perry and Bachmann camps coincide with a Rasmussen Reports poll released this week that found voters aren’t overly enthralled with the idea of having Mr.

Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney are now essentially tied for the lead in the 2012 Republican presidential race, according to a new national poll Gallup released today looking at the candidates seeking to replace pro-abortion President Barack Obama.

Among all Republicans nationwide, Romney is the choice of 20% and Gingrich 19%. Among Republican registered voters, Gingrich is at 22% and Romney at 21%, the new poll found.

Among the other candidates, all of whom are campaigning as pro-life advocates opposed to abortion and taxpayer financing of abortions, the poll of all Republicans finds Herman Cain at 16 percent, Ron Paul at 10 percent, Rick Perry at 8 percent, Michelle Bachmann at 5 percent, and Jon Huntsman and Rick Santorum tied at 1 percent apiece. The survey of registered Republicans has Cain also in third at 16 percent, Paul with 9 percent, Perry with 8 percent, Bachmann at 4 percent and Santorum and Huntsman getting one percent...

Following the second Republican presidential debate in which pro-life Texas Gov. Rick Perry appeared, he has seen his lead against pro-abortion President Barack Obama evaporate while rival Mitt Romney now runs ahead of the president.

“Before he entered his first debate as a presidential candidate, Texas Governor Rick Perry was the Republican frontrunner and held a modest lead in a hypothetical matchup against President Obama. Perry was the target for all the other candidates in the two most recent GOP debates, however, and he now trails the president by single digits,” says pollster Scott Rasmussen about his new national poll.

The Rasmussen national telephone survey of likely voters shows Obama picking up 46% of the vote, while Perry earns support from 39%. Fifteen percent (15%) are either undecided or prefer another candidate.